Bambi: A Life In The Woods
by The Cool Kat
Summary: On an otherwise ordinary day in the great forest, a naive and precocious little fawn has a rather odd encounter with royalty. A standalone one-shot.


_**Bambi: A Life In The Woods:**_

It was a gentle, tranquil morning in the great forest. In the cycle of the seasons, the tepid warm heat of spring and the oppressive mugginess of summer had finally given way to the mild, agreeable temperatures of autumn a good while back, paving the way for the oncoming winter months. October was officially on its way out, and November would be arriving in a week or so. With clear skies above and a light wind blowing the trees, helping to strip the old, weathered oaks of their worn out leaves, it was the perfect sort of day to go exploring - especially if one was a young fawn.

The boy in question, who had been born a bit later than the other members of his generation that year, had been given permission by his mother to head out into the forest and explore what it had to offer to his heart's content, on one condition: he didn't wander off too far. That was their usual agreement, so his mother didn't worry about him. And it was a promise the fawn did try to keep. The keyword being 'try'. He oftentimes found himself wandering off further than his mother would probably like, regardless of his original intent, because he had an insatiable curiosity and the world he lived in was so massive to the little deer. He was usually able to retrace his steps and find his way back to his mother before she noticed anything amiss. He knew to do so, otherwise he would receive a good scolding and he hated getting those. Over time, as he was able to push his luck further and further without getting caught, the boy grew bolder and more likely to take risks.

Truthfully, the little fawn knew he should try harder to keep his word and not play with his mother's trust behind her back, but between the leaves changing color and blowing away in the wind (more and more by the day), the water creatures making dams and building homes in the creek, the fluffy bunnies scurrying around the forest floor, digging burrows for the oncoming winter, and the rare occasions he and his mother would encounter another doe and her fawn in the woodland, there was so much, so much to see in the great forest and it was always changing, always expanding, always evolving. Klaus couldn't really see the harm of staying out a bit longer, or straying a bit farther off the beaten path so he could learn some new things about his home every week, especially if he managed to do so without getting into trouble. He might even prove to himself that she didn't need to smother him so much all the time.

So on this particular day, the boy was more relaxed than usual as he wandered through the lush woodland (even though he had been walking aimlessly for quite a while, doing nothing other than sightseeing), keeping his eyes on the tall, thick trees above him that stretched on for miles more often than the road ahead of him, admiring the wooden giants that towered dozens of stories above the comparatively short deer.

After a while, Klaus felt something brush past his leg and he looked down to see a pair of squirrels dashing across the ground, scurrying up the nearest tree with their precious stash of acorns secured safely in their jaws. They were hoarding food away for winter, as his mother had explained to him, while the weather was still mild. Amused, the deer boy chuckled and sat down to admire the squirrels' handiwork, tracking them as they jumped from branch to branch, popping over to their respective dens, before they scurried back down to start the cycle all over again.

Letting his guard down again, the fawn's tail wagged contentedly as the lad thought about it and decided he would miss autumn when it was gone. However, just when the fawn was starting to get relaxed and comfortable and even a bit lazy, letting the light wind blow through his brown fur as he laid back on the grass, he detected something odd. His left ear twitched and the young deer glanced over at some nearby bushes, which were rustling quite loudly for some reason. The wind wasn't strong enough that day to be disturbing them that much, which meant someone or something had to be doing it. Someone close by. Another animal perhaps?

Standing up now, the puzzled fawn craned his neck and stepped closer to scrutinize the restless plant life when, out of nowhere, another deer hastily stepped out of bushes, prompting Klaus to step back. Except this deer wasn't like Klaus. Not in the slightest. He wasn't a fawn. By the looks of him, he hadn't been a fawn in quite a while. He was pretty tall compared to the boy, he was gaining some muscles on his frame, particularly around the chest area, and most tellingly, he was growing a decent rack of antlers on his head. However, he wasn't a stag either. He still had a long way to go before he reached that stage of development. This stranger looked to be a teenage deer, a young buck that had hit puberty during the springtime and was currently on his way towards manhood.

The unprecedented buck looked around for a moment, searching the area for something, before his eyes landed on Klaus. "You're just a fawn", he spoke, tilting his head as he sized the boy up, as though he was surprised by that discovery.

Quite frankly, Klaus didn't know what to make of the tall stranger either.

After another second, the buck blinked and something in his expression flickered, his interests changing on a dime. "Where's your mother?", he asked more seriously, glancing around again, and for good measure he even turned around to get a better look at the paths behind him.

Now Klaus was really confused and a bit weirded out. From what he knew, male deer rarely ever took an interest in fawns the way female deer did, let alone approaching one and asking a complete stranger unwarranted questions about their mothers.

"No, really, where's your mother?", the buck prompted, but he was only met with silence as the fawn eyed him over, trying to make sense of him. Trying to decide if he should answer him honestly.

But before the pair of deer could move beyond their impasse, the bushes started rustling again, twice as loudly as they had done before with the unmistakable sound of thundering hooves mixed in, grabbing Klaus' attention, until a third party joined them. A mighty stag of all things burst out of the thicket, striding forward determinedly, before he came to a stop beside them and huffed through his snout.

Noticing them out of the corner of his eye, the adult deer turned and quickly locked eyes with Klaus and the mystery buck. And Klaus had to admit, he was feeling pretty small at the moment. If he thought the previous buck was tall compared to him, the burly stag was like a giant with four strong legs, a tawny barrel chest, and a full head of antlers unlike any the boy had ever seen before. Instinctively, the fawn flinched backwards, trying to put some space between himself and the giant newcomer.

Like the previous buck, the stag stepped forward, looking between the fawn and the buck with keen eyes, taking note of everything as he quickly got a read on the situation. Unlike Klaus, the teenage buck wasn't perturbed in the slightest by the stag's arrival and he stepped forward to address him. "I can't find his mother. I looked, but there's no one else around and there's not much t-", the buck relayed, talking quickly to try to explain himself since he was clearly worried, while the stag who was apparently his acquaintance listened intently.

And then it happened.

Right then, when Klaus was already confused and on edge, a loud, shrill crack broke out over the forest above them, splitting the air, making all three animals tense up at once. It was as loud and deafening as thunder, packing as much of a punch as the stormy phenomenon while not sounding anything like it. In the brief moment it had lasted, it was sharp and piercing and all-encompassing. It was a completely unnatural sound for the forest. Klaus had never heard anything like it before in his life, and even though he had no idea what it was or what had caused it, he knew it scared him.

It scared the others as well, considering the look of dread on the buck's face and the thunderous expression on the stag's. The biggest deer snapped his head around towards the teenager, making up his mind in an instant. "There's no time. You have to go now. NOW!", he barked, stressing his order.

"Right!", the buck agreed with him, turning his attention towards Klaus, who still had no idea what was happening.

Another miniature explosion of shrill, deafening noise rang out above the deer, and somehow, impossibly, this round of it sounded even closer than the previous one. Whatever was making that fearsome, ungodly noise was getting closer, it was coming towards them. Coming to get them.

Rushing over to the fawn, the brown buck lowered his head to the ground and scooped the boy up before he knew it. Being mindful of the sharp end of his antlers, the teenage deer let the small boy tumble over his head, down his neck and onto his back, while the fawn let out a small yelp of surprise. "Sorry", the buck said apologetically once the fawn was secure, shaking his little head on his back.

Another murderous crack of noise - growing closer still, growing in intensity and frequency - spurred the buck on and he gritted his teeth in concentration. "Hold on tight!", he instructed to the lad, and Klaus did his best to do as the teenager asked, once he realized what he was going to do.

The buck reared his legs up to get a good running start, before the spry, capable young deer dashed off into the forest, away from the growing chaos and the predator that was closing in on them. The bombardment of distorted noises continued to grow and increase, becoming a full on aggressive assault at that point, but to Klaus' relief, the maelstrom of hellish sounds started to slowly grow quieter and fade away into the distance as the forest path fell away behind them.

The light brown stranger that had saved him narrowed his eyes, keeping track of all his surroundings, as he dug his hooves into the ground, kicking up dirt, and propelled himself around oncoming trees. Making his escape proved to be difficult for the buck. On the one hoof, he had to gain enough speed to get out of the danger zone as quickly as he could. But on the other hoof, he had to make sure the fawn stayed level and secure on his back, so he didn't slip off and get left behind, which limited the teenager somewhat. He might have been able to get the fawn to run alongside him to safety, but in the heat of the moment he hadn't wanted to risk it.

After running ahead with urgency for a few good minutes, the buck's expression started to lighten up once it became apparent they were making a clean getaway. As he reached a cleaner patch of forest that was lacking a thick line of trees, the teenage buck risked a glance behind them to check on his surroundings and check on the boy - and then he saw something that made a part of him grow cold.

The stag wasn't behind them anymore. The buck did a quick scan of the trees behind them and found the regal adult deer was nowhere in sight. He had either been separated from them, or he had stayed behind in the chaos. Which could mean anything. Any number of things. Anything at all.

A bit of irrational dread pooled in his stomach, which caused the buck to subconsciously slow down his dash. But he couldn't stop now to appease his worries, not with the fawn on his back that still needed his help and the predators that were still out there, still coming, never letting up. He didn't dare stop. So the brown-furred buck steeled himself, ignored every one of his instincts that insisted that he kept looking back, and pushed on harder.

With a new drive and determination, the teenager flew into full gallop, dashing around trees, ducking under branches and leaping over tree roots, all while making sure he didn't lose his charge who was jostling around his back, but otherwise clinging on. The yearling was doing what he was taught to do in case of a life or death emergency, go as deep into the forest as he could for shelter and cover, running in the opposite direction of an attack.

Eventually, the brown buck reached a distance he was satisfied with, when he found a dark, shaded, secluded thicket filled with overgrown bushes and trees with low-hanging branches. A quiet, inconspicuous place that was rarely ever touched by the wildlife. The perfect place to hide.

To Klaus' relief, after they stepped through some bushes, the teenager finally slowed down and skidded to a stop amongst all the foliage, allowing both of them to finally catch their breath. Sitting down squarely on the ground, the older deer let the young boy gently slide off his back and come to rest on the soil, depositing him on the grass. Once that was done, the anxious young buck quickly got back to his feet and glanced over at the way they had come in, knowing that if all went to plan, they ought to be having a third party joining them in a matter of seconds.

"Come on, come on", he muttered under his breath.

Moments passed and nothing happened. The bushes remained still, there was no sign of activity (since all the other animals nearby had gone into hiding, much like they were), and there was no sound except for the two deer panting and the gentle, autumn wind caressing the branches around them.

"Come on", the deer prince restated, growing tense despite himself, while the fawn that was out of the loop stared at him from behind.

Another few moments passed and nothing changed. There was no sign, no movement, nothing present except for a stubborn buck's well-placed faith and hope. Finally, just when it was starting to get harder for him to ignore his doubts, he picked up the sound of thundering hooves. A third deer was coming, and coming fast, honing in on him and the fawn. After a moment, the bushes ahead of them started to rustle, giving them a moment of warning, before the Great Prince of the Forest burst through the thicket, catching Klaus off guard like he had done before.

Bambi let out a shallow, tense breath he hadn't even been aware that he was holding in, and the buck let his shoulders slump in relief once all three deer were safe and accounted for. Bambi wasn't quite relaxed yet but he was getting there, as the young prince stepped forward to greet his father. The brawny stag was currently getting his bearings of the small, shady place the trio would be staying in for a while, avoiding hitting any of the low-hanging branches with his antlers.

Once they were standing close together, Bambi made eye contact with the tall, proud stag and looked him over for good measure. The Great Prince quickly noticed what his son was doing and nodded his head, as he sometimes did, letting Bambi know he was alright and unscathed from his latest encounter with Man or some other predator. Bambi smiled lightly and nodded in return, accepting the stag's word as he stepped back.

However, while he was giving Bambi a parental lookover himself, the Great Prince could tell the buck had gotten pretty worried about him before he showed up, and he still looked a bit tense at the moment as well, despite his brightening mood. So, taking Bambi by surprise, the stag stepped forward and gave the buck a gentle, playful nudge with his antlers, the kind he normally reserved for when they were off-duty, which elicited a small chuckle out of the buck and let him know the worst of the danger had passed. Pretty soon, as he persisted, his crafty, ice-breaking trick worked like a charm and Bambi stepped away grinning.

However, after a moment, the Great Prince's eyes came to rest on the third member of their party, little Klaus, who was sitting alone away from the princes in the shade, and the regal stag's expression shifted into one of concern and sympathy. "Are you alright?", he inquired, which took the lad by surprise. It was the first time the stag had addressed the boy directly. It took the fawn a moment to reply, but the stag could wait patiently.

"Yes", he spoke up quietly.

Bambi looked over towards him, their temporary charge, and his expression melted in a similar fashion as his father's. Deciding to take initiative and help him further, the young prince stepped forward to talk to the boy, fawn to buck.

"It's alright, you're safe now. No one here is going to hurt you", he informed the lad, in case he still had any doubts. He made sure to keep his tone as even and his body language as non-threatening as possible as he stopped in front of the boy.

Klaus glanced up at the deer prince, his blue eyes meeting Bambi's brown orbs. "What's your name?', Bambi asked, wanting to know the proper way to address the young deer.

"Klaus", the fawn answered honestly, if a tad reluctantly.

"Well, everything is alright now, Klaus", Bambi reiterated with an easy smile.

"_I want my mother_", Klaus confessed, voicing what he had been thinking for the last few minutes. And just like that, Bambi felt a lot less certain about the boy's predicament himself, his sympathy for the lad growing.

Bambi glanced over towards the Great Prince. "Where is his mother?", he asked his father.

The barrel-chested stag paused for a moment, before he sighed. "I don't know. I didn't see her back there", he admitted. He had done a good sweep of the surrounding area, the danger zone, before he left to follow his son and the fawn, and he was clearly unhappy that he had found nothing.

Taking in his father's words, something inside of Bambi grew cold again. "You- you don't think Man got her, do you?", he inquired, half-afraid to know the answer.

The Great Prince considered that possibility and thought it over for a moment, weighing what he did know, before the forest guardian shook his head. "No, I don't believe that either", he stated, since it didn't seem to add up.

"Then… she's still out there", Bambi reckoned, and the Great Prince made a low humming noise of agreement in the back of his throat, agreeing with the conclusion the buck had reached. So, there was still some hope then. But there was still a problem as well.

"Well, we can't go back there right now, least of all with him", Bambi reasoned, shooting a quick look at Klaus. "We'll just have to find her later, when it's safe", he decided, laying out a plan more for his own benefit than anyone else's.

As he started thinking of ways to do just that, Bambi turned towards the young fawn because he needed to talk to him again. "Klaus, can you tell us your mother's name? Cause it could really help us", the young prince requested.

But before the child could answer, the Great Prince spoke up. "That won't help", the old stag interjected.

Bambi's ears pricked up and the brown buck glanced over at his father in confusion. "Why not?", he asked, puzzled.

"Well, did you know your mother's name when you were his age?", the Great Prince reasoned.

Bambi quickly opened his mouth to reply, before the young prince paused and slowly closed his maw, thinking back to his early childhood, frolicking with his mother, carefree. "Ah… no. No, I didn't", he admitted.

Klaus caught his attention and the young prince looked back to see the small fawn shaking his head, confirming the Great Prince's suspicions, confirming the problem. Bambi sighed and the headstrong buck let his shoulders sag in defeat for a moment. They were getting nowhere fast, stuck in place. Still, he refused to give up that easily. "We'll just have to think of something else", he resolved.

While Bambi tried to whip up another plan, the Great Prince did the same, thinking well ahead of the buck. After a moment of consideration, the stag raised his right front hoof off the ground, catching his son's attention, and then quirked his eyebrow at the teen, encouraging him, signifying that his actions meant something.

Bambi stared at him in confusion for a second or two, before comprehension rapidly dawned on the buck and his eyes lit up before the stag. "Feel the forest. Feel the forest! If his mother's still out there looking for him, she won't just stop running when she's gotten away from Man or when the danger's gone. She'll be dashing around the forest, searching for him all day, turning over every stone she can! We can use that to track her!", Bambi reckoned eagerly, catching on fast.

The Great Prince let his hoof rest firmly on the ground again and smiled at the buck. "Nicely done", he commented, voicing his approval, and the young prince's tail wagged ever so slightly at the compliment. With that said, the Great Prince turned his gaze towards Klaus and strode over towards the fawn, having kept his distance up until then to avoid spooking the lad more than he already was.

As the mighty stag approached him, Klaus eyed the regal adult deer warily, while not actually making an effort to move away. He had started to warm towards the teenager over time, since he kept trying to engage with him, but he still didn't know what to make of the adult deer and he felt torn between keeping his guard up or giving him a fair chance.

Stopping in front of the boy, the Great Prince lowered his head so he could talk to the fawn properly. "Buck up, little one. There's still hope yet", he advised, keeping his demeanor as gentle as he could, gazing upon the child with eyes the same shade of brown as his son's. Kind eyes.

And despite the most skeptical and fearful parts of himself, in that moment, Klaus chose to believe him.

**((()-()))**

Things settled down after that. After the princes had decided on their plan of action once they could move around safely, all that remained was a waiting game. The three deer remained hidden away in the thicket - just one secluded safe haven of many amongst the lush, iridescent, deceptively dangerous woodland - for a good while. Without a way to keep track, the length of time they stayed hunkered down could have been anywhere between an hour or several hours, keeping an eye out for trouble and another eye on the fawn, all while occasionally monitoring the nearby activity in the forest with their hooves.

Eventually, once things had gone quiet and calm for a long while, and the forest vibrations showed little to no signs of activity, the princes determined that Man was gone, for the time being anyway. Either he had given up and left, or he had hunted enough to be satisfied for the day, and the latter was a grim thought that they both decided not to dwell on. Cautiously stepping out into open territory for the first time in a while, one of the first things they all did was stretch their legs, along with any other parts of their bodies that might have gone sore from hours of disuse, before they immediately set out to begin their search.

In the meantime, Bambi and the Great Prince had discovered that it was easier to keep Klaus calm and keep the boy's mind off his worries or his troubles if they kept him talking, about all sorts of topics really - ranging from day-to-day experiences the boy had had, to tidbits about how the forest worked, to personal accounts from the princes themselves about any adventures they might have had - and after a few hours, it seemed like the fawn was finally starting to trust them.

Notably, the younger buck seemed to be having a bit of an easier time engaging the curious youngster with small talk than the older stag did, despite both of them making an effort, which was almost to be expected. The Great Prince's social skills had come a long way since he took Bambi in the previous winter, but Bambi suspected his father was never going to be the most conversational deer. He was a stag of few words, after all.

"Bucks _are_ pretty touchy when it comes to staking out their territory, but they're also pretty wary when it comes to antler size. They don't want to pick a fight they can't win and get hurt real badly. Isn't that right, dad?", Bambi recounted, explaining a fact to the young fawn.

"Quite so", his father confirmed with a light smile, while the stag kept his eyes locked on the path in front of them.

Walking just ahead of the younger deer, leading them, the Great Prince was feeling rather impressed and rather proud of how well Bambi was handling the whole predicament with their temporary companion, along with how well he had been handling it since they first encountered the fawn. His son once again proved that he would make a fine prince someday.

For so many years, the Great Prince had thought he would have to forego any and all personal relationships and live in complete solitude, isolated from the rest of his kind, so he could do his duty to his herd and the forest properly. Even his affection for his mate came second to his position. But then Bambi changed all that. It took a while, but the boy convinced him he could have both: he could be a prince and a very unlikely father. It took some planning and some balancing, but these days, the Great Prince enjoyed having Bambi accompany him on his patrols. The growing deer made for someone to talk to, someone to educate on matters, someone to share stories with and gain a different perspective from (compared to his own, which had admittedly started to stagnate), someone to have fun with when they were off-duty. Plus, getting to watch his son learn and grow and become his own man: the Great Prince found he wouldn't miss that for the world.

Still, the old stag had been leader of his herd for a good long while, and there were several different stories he could think of that would keep a plucky young fawn like Klaus placated on a long journey - including a few he had never told Bambi - so the royal stag had little trouble keeping Klaus' attention when he needed to or when he wanted to.

**((()-()))**

Meanwhile, on the other side of the forest, one mother doe was smack dab in the middle of a crisis, trying her best not to give into despair - and fighting a losing battle.

It had all happened so quickly when she had been caught off guard, with little time to react before it was too late. The birds signaling death, the assault on their home, the screams and the chaos from every animal nearby, everyone running for their lives in every direction, one doe trying her best to push through the madness, screaming for her son to come to her. The whole time Man was attacking - and his onslaught lasted for a long time - she had been torn between seeking shelter and avoiding being struck by his fire, or tearing out amongst the slaughter to find Klaus. She tried to do the latter for as long as she could, but she couldn't find him anywhere, and eventually the melee was too great, she had to fall back and run.

Clarice spent the entire bombardment terrified for the boy, cursing her stupidity. He was so young, only a few months old, born later than the other fawns that year. There was so much he still didn't know about the forest, about how dangerous it could be and how quickly it could turn; she was still building him up to it as she taught him new concepts all the time. He wouldn't know the signs of Man, or what to do when the predator laid siege to their home. She should never have let him out of her sight before she finished his education.

As soon as the monster was gone and it was safe to walk out in the open, Clarice wasted no time setting out to find her son, dashing back to the last place she saw him and expanding outwards from there, searching every nook and cranny of the woods, calling his name and hoping he would answer her again. With all the time that had passed and all the danger he would have faced, the most likely scenario was that her son was dead: that he had been killed and claimed by Man a long time ago. But she refused to entertain the idea, she refused to even think about it, because if she did it would break her, it would destroy her. If her boy was dead because of her carelessness, her lack of foresight, when he was still just a kid, when he still hadn't really lived, she would never forgive herself. So she pushed on.

Trouble was, she had been pushing on for quite a while, and fatigue was starting to set in. She was still planning to search other areas of the forest, she would stay out the rest of the day and all night if she had to, but for the moment she needed to stop and rest. And when she had time to think to herself, it grew harder not to cry.

Suddenly, her right ear twitched as a part of her detected movement. Behind her, some bushes rustled, some leaves crackled, and footsteps fell on grass. The stressed out doe immediately snapped to attention and whipped her head around to check behind her, afraid for one moment that Man had already returned - or worse, that he had never really left - making another move against her when she was fearful and vulnerable. However, what she found when she checked out her immediate surroundings was pretty unorthodox.

It was two of her own kind. A brown, barrel-chested stag and a tawny, teenage buck were approaching her, eyeing her up and down, appraising her. She recognized them pretty quickly. The Great Prince of the Forest, the stag every deer in the forest answered to in some capacity, alongside his son and heir, the Young Prince. However, she didn't know what to make of their sudden appearance out of the foliage. Among all the other things that had happened to her that day, which she was still trying to come to terms with, finding herself in the presence of royalty seemed almost unreal, one more bit of madness, and for a few moments she simply stared at the pair in a daze as they stopped before her.

Somewhere, in the back of her head, it occurred to her that she ought to bow, it was the proper and respectful thing to do, even if she currently felt terrible, so she numbly did just that. She quietly dipped her head before she said or did anything else, and the two strangers repaid her respect by courteously returning the gesture.

"Sir", she addressed the larger stag.

"Clarice", he replied, clearly recognizing the doe as one of his subjects, one of the members of his herd, before glancing behind him, checking something. "Is this your boy?", he questioned, before he and his son stepped aside, giving her a clearer view of the third member of their party, the little fawn they were escorting.

Her heart skipped a beat at the sight. "Klaus?!", she asked, wanting so badly to believe that it was true, that a miracle had happened, even as a small part of her still held out.

"Mother!", Klaus cried out, his little tail wagging while his blue eyes lit up with joy and relief. Before anyone knew it, the fawn separated from his older companions and raced over at full sprint to be reunited with his mother; and the doe, for her part, quickly stepped up to meet him as well, overcome with euphoria.

Once they made contact with each other, Klaus wasted no time in burying his head in his mother's fur and nuzzling her side affectionately. He thought he had lost her. For a few horrible hours, he thought he had been foolish and careless and taken one of the most important people in his life for granted and lost her because of it. But she was still there, just as the strangers said she would be.

The teary-eyed mother embraced her son further, resting her head on top of his own and nuzzling him tenderly. The doe showed him plenty of love and consoled his fears while deep down inside, she worked on quelling her own, closing her eyes as her heart melted.

Standing several yards away, Bambi and the Great Prince looked on the pair with matching warm, contented smiles, touched by the display. They kept a good amount of distance and didn't make a sound, to give the mother and son all the space and privacy they needed at the moment. At one point, the father and son even made eye contact, clearly thinking similar things.

Now that Bambi was older, there were a lot of things he understood about the world that he didn't when he was a fawn. For instance, everyone in the great forest, everywhere, was always living on borrowed time, and no one ever knew when their time was up. That was especially true for the princes, who were usually right on the front-lines of everything. Dealing with Man never got any easier, and perhaps it never would. But days like these - when Bambi and his father helped keep a chunk of the herd safe, or helped a stag return to his mate, or helped a mother doe see her fawns again - these were the days that made it all worth it. They couldn't do as much as they would like, but they did make a real difference in the forest community, they saved lives, and in his heart, Bambi knew he would never want a different calling.

Eventually, after some time passed and Klaus and Clarice started to calm down, the Great Prince decided to step forward, figuring Clarice deserved to know everything that had happened that day.

The Great Prince and his son had been doing their usual rounds, patrolling the east side of the forest and occasionally chatting, when they picked up some discomforting signs of Man - signs that were quickly confirmed - and he wasn't alone. They were about to sound the alarm and warn the rest of the forest when Bambi noticed something was wrong - a lost little fawn, all on his own, in harm's way - and the rest of the morning ran its course from there.

There was also the fact that it took Bambi and the Great Prince longer than they expected to find the right doe - quite a bit longer - they had gone through six or seven personal anecdotes with Klaus in the meantime.

Clarice glanced up at the Great Prince, looking the stag square in the eye. "Thank you", she said sincerely, gratefully.

"We were just doing our duty", the regal stag replied, having already schooled his features into his usual, preferred demeanor of stoic professionalism.

"We were glad to help", Bambi chimed in earnestly.

The doe was about to add more or say more when her son nuzzled her side again, giving her the closest thing deer had to a hug. The mother deer responded in kind, unwittingly tickling the fawn as she straightened out the fur on top of his head by licking it, showing her love for him. And despite himself, the Great Prince felt another small smile curling its way onto his muzzle, knowing how she felt.

"Well then, we'll leave you both to it", he decided, partly to save face but mostly to give them some privacy, straightening out his back as he wrapped up their business. The stag turned around, ready to depart, before he glanced at his son. "Come along, Bambi", he beckoned.

But Bambi had one last thing he wanted to do before they left, looking back at the mother and son. "Hey, stay safe", he advised, addressing the fawn, giving him a tip for the future.

The fawn looked up at the buck, smiled gratefully, and nodded his head in agreement, to which the young prince smiled back, pleased. With that said and done, the teenager turned and trotted along after his father.

Before the day was over, Bambi and the Great Prince still needed to meet with some of the other stags in the herd about a territory dispute that had been dragging on, and Bambi was quite looking forward to that. He had learned a lot over the last year about the protective and defensive aspects of being a prince, so this was an excellent opportunity for him to learn about diplomacy.

"You've never mentioned anything about meeting a silver-eyed stag", Bambi remarked a tad suspiciously, referring to the yarn the Great Prince had shared with Klaus, taking a moment to tease his father. However, the buck's playful skepticism actually seemed to amuse the regal stag as the pair of deer slowly disappeared back into the majestic, autumn forest the way they had come.

Once she had given the boy one last inspection and found him completely unharmed, Clarice decided she could chide Klaus for wandering off later, because at the moment there was nothing the doe wanted more than to head back to their home and call it a day, shepherding the fawn back to their den.

It was a good long while before Klaus fully understood everything that happened that day, and who his rescuers had been, but he never forgot it for as long as he lived; it remained a strong if surreal memory for him. When Klaus was finally a buck with a rack of antlers himself, he like many of the deer in the forest, had plenty of respect and admiration for Great Prince Bambi, the protector of their homeland.

And while the animals of the woodlands rarely ever commented on it, for the sake of propriety, there were quite a few times when Great Prince Bambi could be spotted with two precocious young fawns trailing behind him, one boy and one girl, having taken them off his mate's hooves for the day so he could show them the beauty of the forest. Every prince ran the forest a bit differently than the last, and Klaus figured that Bambi's own unique history made the mighty stag more than willing to buck a tradition or two when it came to the things that really mattered to him - he was going to savor the time he had with the fawns who looked up to him the most.

The End.

_**Author's Note:**_

Out of the new ideas for stories I've been working on lately, I didn't predict that this one would be released first. But Father's Day is coming up, and since the love that's shared between parents and their children is one of the major themes of the "Bambi" movies (to the point where Bambi's mom being shot by hunters is usually the first thing that's mentioned about them), June felt like a pretty good time to post a "Bambi" one-shot. The main idea of this story is what life is like for deer living in the "Bambi" universe, from regular fawns to royalty, and since I've never written for Bambi (the character) before, I really enjoyed crafting this one. Feel free to leave a review.


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